DePaul’s Namita Goswami press conference: Speakers.

Press Conference Line-Up is presented at the bottom for December 7, 2010, at Havana Gallery, 1139 W. Webster. This event is in solidarity with DePaul Assistant Professor Namita Goswami who was denied tenure despite successful appeals, her dean’s recommendation and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee unanimous tenure recommendation. Philosophy professor Goswami is the first faculty member to appeal successfully an academic freedom complaint at the faculty Review Board level. The president, Dennis Holtschneider, rejected the appeal even before Dean Chuck Suchar could offer a new contract or a hearing based on the structural characteristics of a for-cause dismissal hearing. Dean Suchar cannot duck this. He is required to recommend to the provost or president that a new contract be issued or a hearing. This has to happen; there is no escape from justice!! This is a travesty of justice, a mockery of due process and an egregious and unseemly violation of her rights. Administrators cannot ignore, opt-out or eviscerate bylaws and Handbook requirements. They are agreed to by faculty, administration and frequently governing boards. They are legally binding and we are a nation of laws not aribitrary and capricious due process.

My participation is to represent Committee A -ILL AAUP and its findings in this matter. I am not speaking for national AAUP or for the Illinois Conference in general. I do have the full support of the conference in participation at the event. AAUP needs to be a vocal and active voice to protect the academic vulnerable from a host of trangressions dealing with tenure, promotion, dismissal proceedings, sanctions and the like. That is why we are here.

The line-up of speakers at the press conference. Except for me, these are all DePaul professors. Some are in Dr Goswami’s college, some were on college-level rank and tenure committees, some are concerned citizens about the patterns of persecution from content of published writings, to one’s teaching preferences, and possibly one’s ethnicity (although I will avoid charges of the latter):

Matthew Abraham: Welcome, provide context, purpose, and theme– calling on the Board of Trustees to intervene in broken tenure system.